October 4, 2010 5:24PM # Hysteria and the Threat of Mumbai-Style Attacks in Europe By [Malou Innocent](https://www.cato.org/people/malou-innocent) --- SHARE [The State Department has issued a travel warning](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/world/europe/03security.html?_r=1&ref=europe) for U.S. citizens visiting Europe. The alert comes after U.S. and European officials said there was a credible threat of commando style terror attacks against Britain, France, and Germany, similar to the attack in Mumbai almost two years ago. Although many travelers were left wondering [what to do](http://media.bulletinnews.com/playclip.aspx?clipid=8cd31493946a8fd) in the face of a broad warning, the Obama administration has decided to take decisive action by stepping up drone strikes along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border against militants affiliated with [the Haqqani network](http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/03/inside_the_haqqani_network_0), Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s group, and other terrorist outfits. [As I write today over at *the Skeptics*](http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/the-hysteria-confusion-over-mumbai-style-attacks-europe-4178) blog on the *National Interest (Online):* > Nearly a decade after 9/11, these issues underscore a deeper problem with U.S. policy: determining what constitutes a terrorist sanctuary and deciding what course of action is most prudent for eradicating them. > > > Drone strikes are imperative for a policy of offshore balancing. Nevertheless, they are piecemeal, tactical efforts that do little to alter the Pakistani security establishment’s support for Islamist proxies as a hedge against India, Pakistan’s primary enemy. Indeed, massive aerial bombings did not win the war in Vietnam, and it’s not going to change the bigger picture in South Asia. I go on to mention that: > …the neo-jihadists that threaten America are not held hostage to the outdated notion of “territory.” Only we are. We seem to have forgotten that 9/11 was planned not only in Afghanistan, but also in Germany, Spain, and the United States. Even the radicalized youths suspected of plotting the recent Mumbai-style terror plot in Europe came from the same mosque in Hamburg where the 9/11 hijackers gathered. Check out the entire post [here](http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/the-hysteria-confusion-over-mumbai-style-attacks-europe-4178)! ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).